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Division on Homeland Security departmentLabor rights issue still a stumbling block
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Ranking U.S. senators expressed hopes Sunday for settling an impasse over creating a federal Department of Homeland Security, but said progress remains stalled over the issue of labor rights. The House has passed its version of a bill to put most security agencies under one department. But the Senate version stalled weeks before Congress adjourned for midterm elections last week. One day after the elections gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress, President Bush said getting the homeland security bill approved is his first priority. On CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, Sen. Carl Levin D-Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, cited Democrats' main problem with the bill: "We want to secure the nation, and we want to do it by reorganizing where that's necessary. We think, as Democrats, that we can do it without watering down or changing the civil service laws. The president has all the authority he needs to hire and fire people in order to protect homeland security without amending those laws." But Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tennessee, a member of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, disagreed, saying the president ought to be given "the benefit of the doubt." "We can't just have business as usual," Thompson said. "We're inefficient. It takes too long to hire people and too long to fire bad employees. Appeals go on forever and ever and the Democrats wanted to preserve that system." Both senators expressed a hope for resolving the dispute in the lame-duck session of Congress that begins next week. "We're going to make a real try at it, " Thompson said, and suggested Democrats may try to avoid a vote. But Levin countered, saying, "I don't know that it's fair to talk about Democrats as being unwilling to bring this to a vote. We were, but I happen to agree there's no reason why we shouldn't continue to try and bring this to a resolution in a lame-duck session." Labor rights appear to be the only major stumbling block to the creation of the department that would merge 22 agencies comprising some 170,000 employees. Democrats say those employees should retain the collective bargaining rights that other federal employees have. Bush says he needs flexibility to hire, demote, and transfer employees for national security reasons. Republicans accuse Democrats of playing to their strong supporters among labor unions.
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